Since these 2025 topics are popping up for many things this year, I thought I’d make one for brasicas. Mods, please delete if there is another one that I missed.
I got a late start on seeds this year so had to resort to getting starts from Home Depot for my cabbage and broccoli. I prefer to select my varieties and particularly enjoy savoy cabbages, purple broccoli, etc. but I had to settle for the basics this year.
Here are my broccoli. They were planted later than I usually would, around mid April, but they are settled in and starting to size up now. I definitely need to spend some time weeding this weekend.
And here are the cabbage. This variety seems to wilt every day, or just flatten out on the ground for some reason. I never really noticed this with cabbage before, but they seem to be growing okay otherwise. They are well watered and it really isn’t that hot today, so hopefully they do okay in the hotter days to come and give me nice heads.
There are also a few red Russian kale plants around as well (left side of the cabbage bed and back left corner), which are just left over from my cover crop mix you can see cut down and used for mulch. If I see ones that aren’t too close to something else, I’ll leave a few around instead of planting a full row.
Unfortunately, my best was about 10 lbs, using the Giant Winter variety from Southern Exposure. I think I need to be somewhere with a cooler climate to get one of those jumbos.
I think the one in this picture was 5-6 pounds … or about the size of a Husky mix’s head.
Growing brussel sprouts for the first time this year. They’re probably over 14” at this point, but sturdy. For those who grow- do you stake them and when? I can see the start of fruits. I’ve started pulling off lower leaves as I planted dense and they’re shading some other things. I can’t go snap a picture because the mosquitos have made their debut, and I’m allergic to them at this point. The days of covering up, head nets and dousing myself in lemon eucalyptus have most unfortunately begun.
@zendog do you use row covers for cabbage and broccoli? I don’t and gave up on cabbage. I always do broccolini and added purple broccoli this year. We spend a lot of time removing cabbage worms. Always happy to offload extra seedlings to you in the future.
I only have 6 plants so usually just pick them off, but if the cabbage moths are getting bad I do one spray of Spinosad (BT) before they are heading up. The only other thing I spray in the veggie garden is Surround on young eggplant seedlings to keep off the flea beetles and my cucumbers to try to protect them from the cucumber beetles.
I gave up on brussels. I tried them one year and was very excited when I started to see the little sprouts developing, but then the Harlequin beetles showed up and made a mess of them well before harvest time. Brussel sprouts take too long for me as a spring crop that they don’t mature before the bugs get bad. I always have to pull my kale out by mid summer as well since the harlequin beetles, plus white flies, aren’t something I can fend off without resorting to harsher sprays. Hopefully yours mature for you and you don’t have the same pressure. I have thought of trying brussels again and planting them out in August under cover to have them mature over winter or early spring. Our winters are mild enough these days that I don’t think the cold would take them out most winters.
Interesting. I’ve never noticed that beetle in my veg beds. Definitely white flies on kales, but they weren’t that bad last year, not sure why. I keep the kales going to winter and sometimes overwinter for seeds. I tried doing brussel sprouts last fall, but I direct sowed and they never really took off, so pulled them. I think it’s hard to direct sow fall cool crops because it’s so hot here in august and September…and sometimes October. I might try indoors this year and planting out in October…I’m just generally really over starting seedlings by the end of the summer…post how it works out of you do!
I never staked mine and they did fine. I think the variety was Jade Cross. The stems end up pretty thick.
They overwinter well, too, if you plant them later you can avoid some of the pest pressure in the fall and then eat them early spring.
all I can get here usually is raab and this year I planted in magma mustard, the purple crinkled leaves in this. I’ve gotten a lot of little snips of broccoli florets and plenty of these spicy purple so far. my cabbage are bolting already.
I was thinking about white flies, kales and what changed for me because I do remember a time they were annoyingly bad. But, it’s been long enough that I forgot they were a problem until this thread. Here is what I came up with in case it’s deterring anyone from growing amazing kales: demoed the lot and went from old growth trees and only a literal handful of perennials near the garden to a space lined and packed with native gardens. Because beneficials went up multitudes, I think they’re getting eaten. Also, the year before we destroyed everything, I wasn’t harvesting daily, life was too much. Starting last week, I’m picking kales 1-2x/day to eat. I usually look for any eggs under leaves when I’m gathering and quickly brush them off. I’ve also focused more on intentional companion planting (versus “oh it all went in there”) and seeding annual flowers into the beds (mine are raised) like marigold. New this year, I have borage growing as well, waiting for camomile to come up and nasturtium in the perennial gardens near the beds. So, daily harvesting, natives, beneficial annuals and companion planting. We’ll see what happens! I finally saw a lady bug yesterday
I do try cabbage but it’s never great and once in a while I get a good single head of cabbage.
kale is the mainstay for me, because though it bolts and looks sad by June, it survives over winter for a year and I get those early greens from it. usually I put in hunger gap kale but last year I planted white kale.
Not sure what cabbage worms are. We have cabbage white butterflies (Pierisrapae) that give the European cabbages a lot of trouble, are they the same thing? They seem to do less damage to the Asian cabbages, and don’t seem overly attracted to the interspecific hybrids like senposai.
A few years ago a parasitoid wasp (Pteromalus puparum) arrived. They are a pupal endoparasite that eat out the butterfly pupae. They haven’t solved the issue, but they have reduced the damage significantly.
Green larva from the cabbage butterflies that are white with a black dot. They devour brassicas and are virtually the same color as broccoli leaves. Leave dark green balls of poop everywhere too, added bonus.
My red cabbage seedlings ready for transplant. Two varieties: early Topaz, late Roxy. There are more green variety rounds in line sown or to be sown, timed for late harvest.
Don’t have problems with Pieris rapae for know, but I do have issues with slugs and flea beetles (Phyllotreta nemorum), and from recently with cabbage-stem flea beetle (Psylliodes chrysocephala); here’s a short video of it eating my cabbage and pooping (previous year):
I got my cabbages and broccoli out a bit later than usual this year due to the constant, immense amounts of rain we got in southern Indiana this spring. Normally those two Cole crops do very well here as long as I keep those horrible cabbage worms off of them.
I have used Bt on them and it does help, but I finally resorted to pounding some stakes around the edges of my metal raised beds on the inside so the soil was soft and easy to drive the stakes in.
When I start seeing the pretty, but hated, white butterflies hovering around the cabbages, I throw some tulle fabric or some type of thin row cover type cloth that lets light and water through over the stakes. I then clothespin the cloth at intervals around the bottom to the sides of the aluminum raised beds. Works quite well to keep most all insect pests out. If I need to pull a weed or throw some fertilizer around, I just remove the clothespins and lift the fabric a bit.
This year I planted some Candy hybrid onion starts around the edges of the cabbage and broccoli raised beds. We will see how the two crops do together. Just trying to take advantage of all the space where I have good soil. See below:
Chonky old dog is my garden helper and was lying between the beds, worn out from helping me throw straw around the cabbages.
I have tried Brussels sprouts once, planted in July. I nurtured my two plants through the hot late summer months and fall, only to find them massively infested with tiny beetles or something when I went to harvest. May try them again under row cover and planted later in really late summer to see if they will overwinter. Not sure of that in zone 6B.
Ya’ll have inspired me to try kale also, and see if it might overwinter here. Being from Alabama originally, I must have my collards, too. Which reminds me, I am late in getting some seeds out, but collards will take hot weather far better than other Cole crops.
Sandra
That’s a great garden helper! I am trying some cabbages now and they are just starting to put on some size. I’ve got kale and collards, been growing since last year. Supposedly some tree kale that is supposed to be somewhat perennial. They all make into some delicious greens!
@Tiirsys Yes, she is the best helper! It is nice your kale and collards overwinter. Nothing like a mess of fresh greens to set off a meal. The health benefits are just an extra plus.
I really like cabbage because those big heads provide a lot of good food for the space they take. Fermented sauerkraut is delicious and super-healthy. I also like to brown some ground beef and cut the cabbage up in it with onion, salt and pepper and let it cook until the cabbage is soft and wilted. Probably one of my favorite meals. I also sauté cabbage in a little bacon grease (we southerners have to have all our greens cooked in fat😉) and this preserves it perfectly for freezing. I make a huge pan and then portion it out for meals for two into freezer bags. When I want cabbage in the winter, I just dump into a pot frozen, season, heat through and eat.
There are also recipes on line for canned vinegar-based coleslaw which I am going to try this year. When all those huge cabbage heads are ready for harvest at the same time, it is nice to have ways to preserve it like fermenting, canning, and freezing, not to mention how long a head of cabbage will keep in the crisper drawer!
Sandra
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